


Time Is Just An Illusion

by letwonderwomanbe



Category: Carmilla (Web Series)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-25
Updated: 2015-03-25
Packaged: 2018-03-19 13:00:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,093
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3610947
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/letwonderwomanbe/pseuds/letwonderwomanbe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>(Set before the last episode of season 1 where we had no idea if Carmilla was alive or not.)</p><p>Carmilla isn’t dead. She ran away after defeating the Light. However, she keeps coming back to check on Laura throughout her life.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Time Is Just An Illusion

**Author's Note:**

> As much as I love Angst, I'm going to tone it down here for you guys.  
> My first work on AO3!

Carmilla is still very much alive and not dead-dead. But she has gone into hiding because meeting Elle has brought back the realization that she is in fact immortal and that Laura is human and would never live as long as her. And so Carmilla decided to take this chance to NOT say sad goodbyes because that will break both their hearts and she decided to just leave and to leave now because the opportunity has presented itself and if she hesitated, she would never go.

Time flew and so everybody else continued with their lives. Laura even went on to complete her bachelor’s degree and then went to graduate school. All the while, not looking back into the past because she has done her time grieving and those sleepless nights she spent, staring up to the stars, she reminded herself that Carmilla is up there in the sky watching over her and that that broody vampire wouldn’t want her to brood and be useless because god knows she wants to do just that. Life moves on and so she has to catch up.

However, she doesn’t know that Carmilla is still pretty much on earth and that even if this vampire tries to flee from Laura and her whereabouts, Carmilla can’t ever stay away from significant events in Laura’s life. Carmilla didn’t turn up for when Laura got her Bachelor’s but she did disguise herself in the audience during Laura’s post graduate ceremony.

And when Laura finally fell in love again and got engaged and eventually married, Carmilla turned up at the hotel lobby for the wedding reception, pretending to be just another hotel guest. Discretely looking at Laura and how brightly Laura smiled at her wife, Carmilla couldn’t help but smile too. Later that night, when the hall clears out, no one could find the board saying ‘Laura Hollis and Stacy Peterson. Wedding Reception’ Well, of course they wouldn’t find it, not when Carmilla has it tucked under her arms when she left that evening.

The day Laura’s wife gave birth to twin boys, Carmilla was at the hospital but nowhere near the floor that housed Stacy’s room. Instead she stood alone, gazing past the thick glass and looking at Laura’s newborn babies. They are handsome, she admits. She left before she could know their names.

When the twins turned six, they had nightmares about the monsters in their closet. Laura would then tell them stories of how monsters are never what they seem. She’d tell tales of Carmilla and how Carmilla stabbed the everhungry light ‘dragon’ and saved everyone including her. But Laura would always end the stories with a bittersweet smile because she knows deep down that she’s still not completely over Carmilla and her death as the stories she told involved a girl named Mircalla instead. The twins wouldn’t believe their Mama though because vampires are mean and scary and are much like the monsters in their closet. But then one morning, the twins jumped onto Laura’s twin bed screaming “You’re right Mama! Vampires not mean! And Mircalla helped kill all the monsters in our closet!”

What Laura didn’t know was that, in a bout of longing and nostalgia, Carmilla seek Laura out once more and somehow managed to be caught by them two troublemaker twins when she sneaked into the boys’ room to see how big they have grown. They asked who she was and maybe because of the moonlight streaming in from the bedroom window that Carmilla decided to introduce herself as Mircalla instead.

So, the boys started rambling on and on about the monsters in their closet and that Mircalla should never even be in their room because she is a vampire and that vampires are mean and scary and are monsters too. And it was at this time that Carmilla realised what has been said and asked the boys how they knew she is what she is. Thus, the boys started rambling on again about stories that Mama has told them every night, stories of how Mircalla slayed the ‘Light Dragon’ and saved Mama and her friends. Upon hearing that, Carmilla took one of the boys’ toy swords and proceeded to locked herself in the boys’ closet to ‘kill’ the monsters, giving out sounds of ‘pain’ and swishing and thudding here and there. And when Carmilla left that night, she relishes in the fact that she now knows the names of those two cheeky boys; Ben and Will.

However, she’ll never know that from the next night onwards, Laura stays a little longer in the boys’ room after tucking them in, staring out of their bedroom window in hopes that a star would fall from the sky and turns into Carmilla just like how a big black cat would because duh of course that’s possible. But she would always leave after she shakes her head and accept the fact again and again that Carmilla is in the sky and that what the boys spouted that morning must have been a dream. A dream in which Carmilla appeared because certainly, Carmilla’s energy could never be removed from this earth, not like how her soul and body was taken away.

When the boys turned ten, Laura made the decision to bear a child. And when that child, a tiny little girl, was born, Carmilla found herself in a hospital, staring at that little girl through the same thick glass just like how she did 10 years ago with the boys. This time though before she could leave, she was accompanied with a stranger’s presence. That same stranger looked fondly in the same direction as Carmilla was and Carmilla knew then that she either blew her cover or not and that she could still run off and out of the hospital. But she decided to risk it, just to stay a little longer to memorise every little detail on that baby girl’s face. A beat passed before she heard the stranger coughed.

"Babies are beautiful, aren’t they? Which one is yours?" Panicked, Carmilla pointed to the nearest baby.

The stranger nodded, “Settled for a name yet?”

Before Carmilla could conjure up a respond, the stranger added, “My wife has fixated herself on the name Mircalla. I suggested naming our newest addition that but the wifey flat out refused. And I’ve no other names. But that little bundle of joy right there deserves something unique and rare because no name I can think of can live up to how beautiful she is.”

"Name her Carmilla," Carmilla responded. "If you scramble the letters in Mircalla, you’ll get Carmilla"

"That’s a great idea. Thank you for the suggestion. I’ll let Laura know-"

"If you’ll excuse me, I have to go. Nice meeting you, Stacy"

The moment Carmilla turned and realised that the name Stacy left her mouth, Carmilla knew she had to leave that instant. This is a stranger she was talking to, she reminded herself. A stranger whom she knows nothing about. Especially not her name. Stacy didn’t even introduce herself for goodness’ sake. So before Stacy could realise that she did in fact NOT introduce herself, Carmilla speed walked herself towards the elevator. And while she did so, she didn’t see Ben and Will running in her direction, towards their other mother she presumed, until they were a few feet from her. But the boys stopped in their tracks and looked up to Carmilla in awe. ‘No way ’ and ‘Mircalla’ was whispered and before she could help it, she patted the two boys’ head but continued on her path to flee the hell out of this hospital.

While waiting for the elevator to arrive, she tried calming herself down. Breathing in and out as though breathing could actually help calming a vampire down. And when she was finally in the elevator heading to the ground floor, she was still trying to calm her floundering heart that she didn’t even realise that the elevator stopped at a floor. The doors open, her heart beating wildly still, a few people entered and right before the elevator doors’ fully closed, “Oh my. Carmilla” was heard.

She would recognize that voice anywhere. How could she forget? Lola Perry and her high pitched tensed voice was here in the hospital. Lola Perry was here and saw her, albeit if only for a few seconds. Her heart started jumping much more and maybe breathing could be the cause of all this flailing. Breathing was after all what made her heart attempt to pump blood through her veins. And so the moment the elevator reached the ground floor, she made the decision to, this time, stay away from Laura no matter what. Not that it was easy but seeing the old gang would make Carmilla regret her decision of leaving in the first place. And so, she didn’t return again.

That rings true until she realised that Laura was turning 50 in a few weeks. That would make the Ben and Will 20 and the baby girl 10 that year. It’ll make Carmilla what? a hundred thousand years old? Not that she cared. Because time was an illusion and so she returned to find herself at the same hospital again. This time lurking in the shadows, trying to catch a glimpse of Laura’s face. Stacy was admitted to the hospital a few months ago for Lung Cancer and her condition was not good. And that night when Laura took a bathroom break, Carmilla slipped into Stacy’s room.

"Nice to see you join me in my death bed, vampire"

"On the contrary, friend. My death bed is everywhere I step on and it is you, who is trying to join me" Carmilla snarked.

A long pause passed with the two of them just locking eyes before Stacy spoke again. “Keep a lookout for her still, will you? For me?”

"Don’t spurt out nonsense. You’re her wife. You lookout for her."

"I’ve not been doing a good job as you, now have I? I thought I’ve seen the last of you."

"Surprise, bitch"

The two of them chuckled. Of course Carmilla would lighten up the mood by quoting America Horror Story. Duh. And when Laura returned, her wife took her last breath and there on the nightstand was a note saying “Who knew Death would send Mircalla my way before taking me away? I love you, Laura. You’ll always be my Light Dragon.” It wasn’t signed or anything but Laura knew for sure that though the words were definitely from her wife, Stacy did not write it.

Carmilla stuck around longer this time. She was near when Stacy’s funeral happened. And she stayed near after it. She watched Laura’s family grieved and mourned, watched Ben’s fiancée consoling him, watched Will hug himself to sleep and watched the youngest one cry every night. When the time came for Ben and Will to return to their respective colleges, Carmilla couldn’t stay away. She walked at a distance from the boys when they were at the airport. Both Laura and her daughter were at home so that’ll mean that she only had to avoid two rather than four. She kept her eye on them until she lost track of Will. She turned around in hopes to find the boy but the boy found her first. Will closed in on her and before she could run away, Ben grabbed hold of her wrist. “Mircalla,” they both whispered at the same time.

She didn’t turn and run though. Instead, Carmilla took it all in stride. She held Ben’s hand, the one that held her other wrist and pried herself free. She tiptoed to ruffle Ben’s messy hair before placing her other hand on Will’s cheek. She smirked because who knew this day would come that she could be out in the open with the twins and that the three of them looked the same age. And before she could say anything, she was engulfed in a hug by the two boys.

"We missed you"  
“We thought you’d never return”

"Hmph. And leave you two with all the fun to kill the monsters in the closet? Never."

And so Carmilla placed a kiss on both their cheeks before waving them goodbye. That afternoon when she returned to Laura’s house, she found a box labelled Ben & Will. And in that box she found the toy sword she played with. She took it with her and before creeping out of Laura’s home, she passed by Laura’s baby girl’s room and decided to take a look. What she found brought tears to her eyes. There on a wall were the words ‘CARMILLA’S ROOM’. The baby girl was named after her. Stacy really did suggested her name to Laura. And Laura really did named her daughter after her. Tears streamed down her face and before she knew it, out came Carmilla junior from the room’s bathroom. Before the girl could scream, Carmilla dropped the toy sword onto the floor and covered the girl’s mouth and said “It’s me, Mircalla.”

And in that moment, Carmilla would never forget how she seemingly saw the gears turned in the girl’s head, as though Laura’s daughter knew who she was and what she was to Laura. Because the moment Carmilla let go of her, the girl screamed out “MAMA!!” and so Carmilla turned into a bat and flew out of the window before Laura reached her daughter’s room.

"What is it, Darling? What happened??"

"She was here, Mama. Mircalla -wait, Carmilla- was here. She was here Mama, I swear and she looks just the same as the pictures and videos you’ve shown me. I swear, Mama, she was here and-"

Before the girl could continue, Laura hugged her daughter and said that everything was alright. “If Carmilla -If Mircalla was here, she would’ve stayed.”

"But she really was here, Mama. I turned and called you and when I turned back, she was gone. I just wanted to ask her about Mummy. The note said mummy was with her before she died. Maybe Mircalla knows how mummy is now and how-"

"Mircalla isn’t an angel, darling. She cannot visit heaven and hell anytime she wants to. She is a vampire."

"She may be a vampire but she saved you. And Ben and Will met her before too. And so did Mummy. Why is it that the moment I meet her, she disappears?"

"That’s because she’s not here, Carmilla. She’s dead"

"She’s a vampire, Ma. She’s been dead all along."

That night when Little Carmilla went to bed, Carmilla shook herself out of the tree near the girl’s bedroom window and flew into the bedroom. Carmilla had a lot of time to think right before this moment. When she flew out of the room hours before, she took refuge in the nearby tree because flying in the sun is only going to burn holes into her arms. So, she couldn’t help but overhear the conversation that took place awhile back. And when her mind told her to fly away just like how she kept fleeing all these years, this time her body wouldn’t listen.

Instead she stayed rooted to the tree branch, listening to the entirety of the conversation and then she stayed there the whole afternoon because of course, Laura would never ever know what is blatantly obvious unless it hits her in the face. Everyone in Laura’s family knew she was alive and she’s pretty sure that the old gang also knows that she is out and about. She was even spotted by Danny and LaFontaine when she was at the supermarket to satisfy her sweet tooth. Both of them saw her, smiled and jumped a little but never approached her in the hopes that if they didn’t disturb her, they would then not send her away. Because Carmilla’s also pretty sure that they figured that Carmilla’s recent disappearance was because she was overwhelmed with being seen by Lola freaking Perry.

And so before Laura’s daughter could pull her covers over her head, black smoke filled the room. There the vampire appeared, in her human form, in the middle of the girl’s room.

"Mircalla", the girl whispered.

"Nope. It’s Carmilla."

"Why did you come back?"

"I left my sword"

The vampire turned around and found the toy sword in the corner of the room. She picked it up, eyeing it at every angle, mostly to give herself some time to go about saying what she had planned to say. However, before she could say anything at all, the girl leapt off from her bed to hug the vampire.

"Thank you for coming back. And I’m not letting go until you tell me everything"

And told the girl everything she did. From meeting the girl’s brothers and coincidentally meeting Stacy and how Aunt Lola’s face changed the first time she saw the vampire again. Oh and of course how the old gang all pretended to not have seen her so that she wouldn’t run away again, even going to the extent of covering their eyes with their own hands. How Aunt Danny used to give her glares whenever she walked around campus with Laura. How her travels have been and how beautiful France is. Carmilla told the girl how she stood up to the Dean. And how Aunt Lola’s brownies are to die for. To how she killed that ‘Light Dragon’ and saved the day and everyone. The stories continued till day break but Carmilla didn’t realise the time for she stayed in that bed snuggled up against Little Carmilla and feeding the girl’s imagination with deadly flying mushrooms and things of the like.

The vampire was so involved in her stories that she didn’t hear the bedroom door creaked open nor did she see Laura clutching the doorknob for support. Only when Laura’s sobs were no longer muffled did the vampire took her eyes away from the girl.

"Carmilla …"

"You seem to age like wine, cupcake. You’re much more beautiful than I could remember."

Laura crossed the room and before she could pummel herself into her daughter’s bed and hug the life out of the vampire, Carmilla stood and met her halfway.

So there they were, thirty years since the incident, hugging in the middle of Little Carmilla’s room. Time really was an illusion. And maybe it’s the sun rays streaming through the windows that Carmilla decided to jokingly introduce herself as Mircalla, only to receive a soft punch to her shoulder and small chuckle from the girl still in bed.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you liked it! I've always loved the whole notion of lovers meeting again after a long time. Have a nice day!


End file.
